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You are here: Home / Dips/Sauces / Easy Vegan Pesto (Oil-free!)

Easy Vegan Pesto (Oil-free!)

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This simple and Easy Vegan Pesto recipe is fresh, oil-free, just 6 ingredients and takes just a few minutes to prepare. Healthy and wholesome with lots of fresh basil and pine nuts!

EASY VEGAN PESTO

I have always loved pesto. I love it even more with it is a healthy pesto, as well as being extremely simple and easy to make with only a few ingredients. This easy vegan pesto is oil-free, unlike traditional pesto, which has crazy amounts of oil.

This recipe comes from Emily Von Euw and her cookbook, The Rawsome Vegan Cookbook. As Emily describes it, “A balance of Raw and Lightly-cooked, Gluten-free, Plant-based Meal for Healthy Living”.

Emily’s blog, This Rawsome Vegan Life, is extremely successful and even though she is known for raw food, I love that this book has a ton of cooked recipes. I do not follow a raw diet, so this fits more into my daily lifestyle and eating. Emily is also known for her simplicity, which you all know I love and focus on as well with my own recipes.

Her book contains over 80 recipes, all accompanied with a beautiful photo, and very easy meals. They are all heavily focused on the simplicity and beauty of veggies. The meals are light, not heavy, so they won’t weigh you down. There are a ton of completely raw recipes and also a lot of lightly-cooked recipes. If you check out Emily on Instagram, you can get a pretty good idea of the type of food you would see in her cookbook! Light, fresh, easy and simple.

I was immediately drawn to this oil-free vegan pesto that I’m sharing with you today because I loved how easy it was and I LOVE basil. Oh, and I LOVE pasta and wanted something more on the filling side. This has a strong flavor from all of the fresh basil and bold flavor of pine nuts.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED

  • Fresh basil
  • Pine nuts
  • Garlic
  • Pasta: I used gluten-free penne, but use whatever you like.
  • Grape tomatoes
  • Nutritional yeast
  • Lemon juice

HOW TO MAKE VEGAN PESTO OIL FREE

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Cut all the tomatoes in half and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are bubbling and slightly wrinkled.

Step 2: Cook pasta according to the package directions.

Step 3: To make the pesto: blend all the ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. I wanted mine completely smooth. As noted above, I also added lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Add more salt if needed

Step 4: Toss pasta with the pesto and serve with the roasted tomatoes.

MORE VEGAN OIL FREE SAUCES

  • Vegan Chimichurri Sauce
  • Poblano Pepper Cream Sauce
  • Texas BBQ Sauce
  • Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
  • Vegan Lemon Sauce
  • Best Vegan Alfredo Sauce
  • Creamy Chili Sauce with Pasta

Emily is allowing me to share this beautiful recipe for her cookbook with you all today! You can purchase a copy of her cookbook here!

white plate of basil pesto with roasted cherry tomatoes

Easy Vegan Pesto (Oil-free!)

Brandi Doming
This simple and Easy Vegan Pesto recipe is fresh, oil-free, just 6 ingredients and takes just a few minutes to prepare. Healthy and wholesome with lots of fresh basil and pine nuts!
4.92 from 12 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 20 mins
Total Time 25 mins
Course Dinner
Cuisine American, Gluten-free, Vegan

Ingredients

  • 1 dry pint (275g) grape tomatoes
  • 2 cups (232g) uncooked whole grain, gluten-free penne pasta
  • 2 cups (48g) lightly packed basil leaves
  • 1/4 cup (60g) water
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1/4 teaspoon himalayan salt
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 a lemon, or as much as you'd like, to taste
  • I use this scale.

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Cut all the tomatoes in half and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are bubbling and slightly wrinkled.
  • Cook the pasta according the package directions.
  • To make the pesto: blend all the ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. I wanted mine completely smooth. As noted above, I also added lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Add more salt if needed.
  • Toss the pesto with the cooked pasta and garnish with extra basil and serve with the roasted tomatoes.

Notes

While the recipe in her book didn't call for it, I added more ingredients for more flavor. I added a little bit of nutritional yeast and lemon juice to mine as well. I like them in my pesto.
Tried this recipe?Tag @thevegan8brandi on Instagram and use tag #thevegan8!
Keyword easy vegan pesto, oil free vegan pesto, simple vegan pesto, vegan pesto no oil, vegan pesto recipe

The Vegan 8 is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Please see my full disclosure policy here.

Filed Under: Dips/Sauces, Gluten Free, Gluten-free, Grains/Pasta, Main Dishes, Pasta Tagged With: Basil, Cookbook, Gluten-free, Oil free, pesto, Pine nuts, Tomatoes

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Comments

  1. Alana T.

    January 15, 2016 at 8:27 am

    My favorite recipes are baked ones & raw desserts because baking is a skill that I just cannot wrap my head around. It still feels like magic to me! I don’t need recipes to cook & am a full house of inspiration upon opening the fridge for dinner, but baking still stumps me! (Mostly because I don’t measure anything…. maybe that has something to do with it :P)

    Reply
  2. Lis

    October 18, 2020 at 9:12 am

    5 stars
    Really easy and tastes great! I definitely recommend the lemon juice and nutritional yeast addition!

    Reply
    • brandi.doming@yahoo.com

      October 18, 2020 at 5:36 pm

      Awesome Lis! Yes, I agree. Her base recipe is good but I prefer more flavor so that’s why I recommended those additions!

      Reply
  3. Cathy

    July 17, 2021 at 8:23 pm

    Thank you for posting this no oil pesto recipe! My basil plant is now a Bush and anxious to make my own pesto without all that oil other recipes call for.

    Reply
    • brandi.doming@yahoo.com

      July 19, 2021 at 12:57 am

      Oh yay, hope you love it!

      Reply
  4. Nikki

    December 25, 2021 at 8:00 am

    Any idea on the calories ect

    Reply
  5. Kari Elizabeth Tredway

    February 17, 2022 at 5:58 am

    5 stars
    Perfect! My family loved it.

    Reply
    • brandi.doming@yahoo.com

      February 17, 2022 at 8:00 pm

      Awesome Kari!

      Reply
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I'm Brandi, creator of this vegan blog and cookbook author of The Vegan 8 Cookbook. The majority of my recipes focus on 8 ingredients or less, not counting salt, pepper or water. I love to create health-focused recipes, using whole foods to improve fitness and muscle-building, with the occasional comfort meal thrown in there! I'm an expert on oil-free cooking and baking! read more →

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The Vegan 8 is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see my full disclosure policy here.

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